David Joyner, the chief executive officer of CVS Health, appeared at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., last week for a wide-ranging discussion about life, business philosophy and problems with shoplifters.
But his interview with Christopher Rowland, a reporter at The Washington Post, about employer-sponsored health plan coverage for GLP-1 agonist weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro what made national headlines.
Joyner told Rowland that the current research does not yet show whether the long-term impact of taking the new-generation weight-loss drugs justifies employers covering use of the drugs solely for weight loss at today’s prices.
“The economics simply aren’t there yet,” Joyner said, according to an article published Sunday. Many other health care publications have since published summaries of the Post article, and patients who are taking the drugs have been talking about it on social media and other forums like Reddit.
See also: GLP-1s drive 20% of prescription spending at large self-funded plans
David Joyner became CEO of CVS in 2024
Joyner took over as CEO of CVS, the parent of both Aetna and Caremark, in October 2024.
In 2024, while he was the CEO of Caremark, he predicted at a U.S. House hearing that providing GLP-1 agonists and similar drugs for every obese U.S. resident at 2024 prices would cost $1.2 trillion.
Joyner has since been a key player in national discussions about how to reconcile the interests of patients, plans, pharmacists and PBMs.
The Economic Club appearance:
The Economic Club has posted a video recording of Joyner’s appearance online. During the event, Joyner talked about efforts to strengthen Aetna and help pharmacists make more use of their expertise.
“My focus, at least over the last year, has been making sure Aetna gets back to the brand and the reputation and the ability to deliver a consistent performance,” Joyner said.
CVS has now gone through two cycles of ups and downs in the health insurance business since it acquired Aetna, and “I think we’ve got our arms around how to predict where health care costs are going and making sure we’re pricing our products accordingly,” Joyner said.
Joyner said he has also been trying to persuade Congress to let pharmacists help compensate for a shrinking supply of primary care doctors.
CVS has added technology to make its stores more efficient, and “now we have capacity for the 30,000 pharmacists that are taking care of our customers to do more things than just dispense medications,” he said. “So, where I’m going next is trying to have them practice at the top of their license.”
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